"Ukraine is not Portugal" - Bosnia and Herzegovina national team director

Former Bayern Munich midfielder and current Bosnia and Herzegovina national team director Zvezdan Misimovic has revealed what he thinks about his national team's match against Ukraine in the semi-final of the Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs, which will take place this Thursday in Zenica.

"We have quite fresh experience of matches against this opponent. We recently played against Ukraine in World Cup 2022 qualification, where we played phenomenally away and got a draw (1:1 - ed.), but in the home match we were a bit weaker (0:2 - ed.).

The Ukraine national team has physically strong and fast players, which is bad for us. But there are also problems for the opponent: the Ukrainian championship after the winter break has just started, so now a number of players of the Ukrainian national team are not in their best form. This can be a plus for us. Also our obvious advantage is the home field: I am sure that the atmosphere at the match will be at the highest level.

Yes, the Ukraine national team are considered favourites in the match against us, but sometimes this status becomes a difficulty for the team in the psychological sense. Nothing impressive is expected from our national team after the results at the group stage of qualification. This could be our advantage.

In any case, Ukraine is not Portugal, against whom we were really absolute outsiders in the previous playoffs. Maybe we are quite satisfied with the fact that everyone calls Ukraine the favourite. At the same time, I repeat, it is not a team of the same rank as, for example, the Portuguese national team.

I think that if our players show extra maximum commitment, we will have a reason to expect success. I hope we will pass Ukraine. And then I will not care who will be our opponent in the final play-off. We recently played against Iceland, and in both matches we were better than this opponent. The Israeli national team hasn't looked like a tom team in recent years, they're in a slump. And in general, I am not afraid of any opponent in the context of matches with our national team," said Misimovic in a conversation with journalist Muhamed Bikic for the magazine of the Federal Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina "Sport".

Translation and stylistic adaptation - Dynamo.kiev.ua, when using the material hyperlink is mandatory!